Melanistic Puma Seen By Wildlife Enthusiast In Britain

He was travelling along Main Street in the village when he spotted a large black cat walking on the pavement . . . he drove alongside the animal with about a 10 foot gap between it and his car for 150 yards . . . travelling at about 10mph . . .

"The head was a little on the small side for a jaguar or leopard and the somewhat lithe, leggy appearance is strongly suggestive of a puma," . . .

www.derbytelegraph.co.uk...

According to mountainlion.org

To date there has never been a confirmed case of a melanistic (black) mountain lion.

mountainlion.org...

It's an interesting sighting. A cat that doesn't exist seen at close quarters by an experienced observer.

There's plenty of woodland and water in the area. An escaped puma could probably live there for some time. But as usual this is a mystifying sighting. A black puma strolling through an English village, unconcerned by the car beside it, turning off the road by the old church.

Interesting, I think many of these exotic pets were released or went feral decades ago.

Melanistic Puma? An interesting phrase.

Imagine they titled the The Black Panther movie The Melanistic Puma.
Accurate perhaps, but it just doesn't have the same elan to it.

The wildlife enthusiast says he didn't tell anyone about spotting a rare, elusive creature because they wouldn't believe him.

Does that sit well?

a reply to: Kester

It is an interesting fact to note that there are more tigers in captivity in the US than there are in the wild.

Source

I lived near a guy (in the Erie PA, USA area) who had a tiger in a cage on his front yard. He got in trouble with the cops and he let the tiger out to attack them. Didn't end well for anyone.

Maybe your cat is a former captive cat?

I don't think big cats have lived in England for several thousand years.